1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a panorama photography method, and more particularly to a method for controlling a digital camera to automatically pick up a panoramic image.
2. Related Art
A panoramic image is used to present a wide field of view by simulating a scene of approximately 160° that can be perceived by human eyes, while an ordinary size image shows a region that is cut from a scene. It can be seen by comparison that, the ordinary image highlights the certain region of interest to the human eyes, and the panoramic image enables the viewer to experience the atmosphere at that time. As the panoramic image is fabricated by stitching and blending a plurality of images of the same specification that is picked up from the same scene, the joining region among the images to be joined is one of the key points for obtaining the panoramic image.
In the prior art, two methods for capturing a panoramic image exist. For one method, a user captures a plurality of images by moving a digital camera in a manual manner (in a bare-handed manner or through a stand), then inputs the captured images into a computer, and joins the images by using an image processing software, thus generating a panoramic image. However, this method is quite difficult for ordinary users. On one hand, during capturing, professional photographing skills are required, otherwise the difficulty of the subsequent image-joining process is increased or the effect of image joining is poor. On the other hand, the complex image software needs to be operated for stitching and blending the images.
For the other simple method, an assistant alignment image is displayed on a display screen of the digital camera, so as to assist the user to fabricate the panoramic image. However, in this method, the user needs to independently overlap the alignment image and the scene. The overlapping process requires the user to have an ability in alignment, as the error invisible to the human eyes may cause that the image is not selected from the optimal alignment position, and the generated alignment error may further affect the result of the subsequent image-joining process. Even if the user perfectly overlaps the alignment image and the scene, the alignment may still fail at the instant when the digital camera shakes due to the action of depressing the shutter during image capturing, resulting in the failure to capture the panoramic image.